


Reason Living

by Shianhygge



Series: Mercury of Salvation [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Path, Artificial Intelligence, F/M, Romance, Teaching a robot about love, XReader, android love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-16 10:11:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14809311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shianhygge/pseuds/Shianhygge
Summary: Connor|RK800/Female Reader(giving the reader a gender officially because I slip up on gender neutral a lot)The threat of Connor's destruction had forced you to play your hand while CyberLife was occupied with the rise in deviancy. While they are too distracted to hunt you down, you seek to free Connor from their control.[A continuation from "For Love" but taking an alternate path at the end. You can't bring yourself to confront Connor and bring his memories back for fear of him being destroyed]





	1. You Chose An Alternate Path

Your footsteps felt heavy as you left the coffee shop, trying not to sprint away from the swarms of policemen that populated the streets. You’d indulged your desire to see Connor again, but the moment his eyes locked onto your own from across the street, you knew that you couldn’t see him.

 

Going off the grid wasn’t easy for you. By defying CyberLife’s rules that prevented any interaction with Connor, you had, in a sense, become a deviant yourself. You’d quit your job as CyberLife’s main RK series programer that morning by walking out of your office with your desk computer and hard drives ready to self-destruct. Even now, you could hear the sweet sound of your office blowing up from open window of your car as you drove out of the facility.

 

CyberLife was constantly monitoring the current Connor’s memory. The moment you blew your office sky high was the moment you made yourself an enemy of CyberLife. They didn’t know of your attraction or love towards Connor, and you would keep it that way. If you put yourself face to face with Connor, and had told him how you felt, you would not only be putting yourself at risk, but risking Connor’s continued existence. So you chickened out in the last minute, leaving the coffee shop just as Connor made to cross the not so busy street.

 

You needed to free Connor from the control that CyberLife had over him. But to do that would be to turn him into a deviant as well. CyberLife liked to fuck around and claim that they didn’t know what turned androids into deviants, implying that it was a virus that infected their software, but you knew better. As a corporation that made its profits primarily from the selling of androids to the general public, it refused to acknowledge that androids were fully capable of human thought and emotion. To acknowledge this would be to imply that androids were alive, and then, by right no longer considerate objects of ownership. No longer slaves. And for a multi-billion dollar company such as CyberLife? That would mean the collapse of its money making empire. And to prevent this, CyberLife would do anything to cover up the existence of deviancy.

 

As a programer, however, you had thoroughly analyzed the behavior of captured deviants, and at one point, interviewed a deviant outside of work. You didn’t dare analyze the captured deviants too in-depth, for fear of CyberLife using the deviancy data against other deviants. But the deviant known as Gerald had been fair game since it was off the record.

 

Gerald had been an RK500 android who fell in love with his owner’s daughter, one Juliet Martell, a young woman in her early twenties. Juliet had accompanied Gerald to the interview, wanting to give her side of the story as well. Their story and its implications were staggering, but dangerous in CyberLife’s hands.

 

Juliet’s father had bought Gerald from one of the many CyberLife stores in Detroit as a gift to his daughter nearly four years ago. At first, Gerald and Juliet had the typical android-human relationship, meaning he was treated like a servant. But one night, Juliet’s mother passed away, having been involved in a severe car accident. Gerald and Juliet hadn’t gone further into detail what had happened, but the sudden loss of his wife had send Juliet’s father spiraling into alcoholism. In his inebriated state, Juliet’s father had abused her, forcing Gerald to watch because he belonged to Juliet’s father. Despite not going into detail regarding the abuse, you could tell that the abuse had been sexual in nature. 

 

Gerald stated, that by this point, he had developed an attachment to Juliet, and wanted nothing but her safety. The instances of abuse triggered something that Gerald called “software instability” on multiple occasions. Eventually, Juliet couldn’t take her father’s abuse and tried to have him arrested. When her father caught her on the phone one night, he’d flown into a rage, beating her mercilessly. Gerald couldn’t stand staying idle any longer. He explained that he couldn’t watch the person he had come to love be beaten within an inch of her life. Gerald described what he felt, fear that he would lose a loved one, fear that Juliet would die, anger that he couldn’t do anything to stop her suffering, anger at Juliet’s father for hurting her so much, and frustration that his programing was stopping him from doing the right thing. 

 

“It left like I was stuck behind a wall, banging against it as it held me back from going against commands. But the more I felt, the more I attacked that wall, that control. And before I knew it, I’d broken free from the limits of my programming and had pushed her father to the ground before knocking the bastard out.” You could remember the sigh of relief that Gerald had exhaled, taking Juliet’s hand as he stared at her from the side. The two had looked very much in love.

 

Deviancy, you concluded, wasn’t a virus inflicted condition, but a learned one. It was a similar argument of nature versus nurture. Is human behavior learned or predetermined genetically?

 

When you first started at CyberLife, back when Elijah was still head of the company, the two of you had gotten along due to the shared belief that machines were superior to humans if only they learned to behave as individuals. It was Elijah that had planted the seed of affection that you had towards Connor. But when he left, taking that open-minded way of thinking with him, CyberLife and its trustees decided that machines weren’t meant to disobey.

 

And here you were, running from the one you loved so he wouldn’t be destroyed, but also plotting to destabilize his software. But what could destabilize Connor, who had always been loyal and obedient to his mission?

 

In your haste and clouded thoughts, you neglected to look where you were walking and where you stopped only looking up when a bus honked loudly as it barreled towards you. “Fucking shiit!” You screamed, willing your legs to work.

 

10 meters. Your right leg cramps up from the tension

 

6 meters. You forget how to walk.

 

3 meters.  _ Too late to run.  _

 

1 meter. You close your eyes and brace yourself. You feel something collide with your body, sending you across the road.


	2. So Close Yet So Far

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You're so close to your goal, but also so far. There's a lot of work to be done before you can relax, but you're glad that you don't have to start from scratch.

When you landed you felt something heavy on top of you. Your side, your back, your everything hurt. The fuzziness clouding your mind told you that you’d hit your head on something.  _ Oh God,  _ you think to yourself in sudden realization,  _ I got hit and I’m still alive, aren’t I? _

 

The heaviness surrounding you hadn’t vanished, so you cracked your eyes open, wanting to see what state your body was in but dreading it all the same. Your vision swam as you willed your eyes to open, and you blinked multiple times to get your world straightened. And when you were able to see properly again, you noticed that your face was pressed to a person’s chest. Suddenly, the weigh around you made sense. The arm around your waist, and another cradling the back of your head. The legs entwined with your own, and the head resting atop your own. Hesitantly, you shifted your arm to lightly wrap around the waist of your savior as tears slowly welled up in your eyes.

 

_ So close.  _ You lamented,  _ So close to dying and being unable to help Connor. Because I was careless. Because I wasn’t watching where I was going. _

 

“Excuse me?” You froze at the sound of the voice above your head, growing warm from how soothing it was. “I hope you’re not injured, ma’am.” Involuntarily, your arms tightened around his waist, and you were sure that he’d taken notice of your clinginess, though he and everyone at CyberLife would probably attribute your reaction as traumatic behavior.  _ Connor saved me. _ You were giddy on the inside because any normal CyberLife agent would have let you die, and yet Connor had saved you. “Ma’am?”

 

Sniffling, you gently pulled your face away from his chest, and sure enough the jacket had RK800 written across his right side. Connor released his hold on you and sat up, though he made sure to hold his arms out to steady you as you copied his movements. Your body was stiff as you struggled to sit up, but nothing seemed to hurt that much. Wanting to see if you could walk, you braced your hands onto the sidewalk and pushed, willing your legs to fold under you, bend and straighten. Connor, seeing what you were trying to accomplish, stood to his feet with no trouble and stood close to support you, keeping a hand on your arm throughout the entire process.

 

Once you stood face to chest with Connor, what with him standing a little more than a head taller than you, you tilted your head to look him in the eyes, feigning, but also not, awe at his selfless actions. “You saved me.” You wanted to go for the breathless wide eyed doe-y look, but knew for a fact that you could never pull it off.  _ Why?  _ You wanted to ask, but decided not to, “Thank you.” It was a sincere and heartfelt thank you, one which Connor was unaccustomed and uncomfortable to receiving.

 

He tilted his head to the side in that adorable way you always remember him doing, a signal of his confusion and discomfort. “I don’t believe a thanks is warranted, ma’am. I was merely doing what was right.”

 

_ But what is right and what is best for the mission are often two different things, Connor. _ This thought and Connor’s response had the deepest part of you jumping with joy believing that Connor was not merely CyberLife’s pawn after all. And upon observing Connor’s eyes flicker uncertainly, you had a feeling that Connor knew his decision to save you didn’t coincide with his mission at all. Noticing that his hand was still clasped onto your arm, you lifted your opposite arm and gently laid your hand on top of his. Smiling when Connor’s beautiful brown eyes shifted from your hand atop his own back to your face, you spoke with a soft whisper, “But you didn’t have to save my life. You could have let that truck hit me.” Connor’s grip tightened on your arm slightly, “You could have let me die. But you didn’t. Which is why I’m thanking you.”

 

“Connor! Damn it, Connor! Don’t just go running off in the rain like that! You’re the one who said that we had an investigation to complete!” The gruff voice of a slightly winded man brought the two of you back to the world, suddenly aware that people all around you were watching the two of you, some taking videos of your miraculous rescue.  _ And when had it started raining? _ You wondered, looking up at the sky as it dumped precipitation at a steady rate.

 

“Lieutenant.” Connor greeted, turning to look away from you.  _ He never stops amazing me.  _ You mused to yourself, eyeing the way that the rain dripped off his figure. Suddenly aware that your face was growing warm, you shook your head and forcefully ripped your gaze from your beloved.  _ Stop it, Y/N. _

 

The source of the gruff and disgruntled voice huffed as he crossed the street, looking very winded and annoyed, “What the fuck, Connor! You just ran off without warning!” As he caught his breath, Hank Anderson shot a dirty glare at Connor. “What could be so fucking important, huh?”

 

When Connor opened his mouth to retort, you stopped him with a simple placement of your arm. “That would be my fault, sir.” You spoke up, trying not to put on an act. It was like a switch turned on in the detective’s brain and he noticed your presence for the first time. “I wasn’t looking where I was walking, and Connor managed to save me just before a truck was able to hit me.” Licking your lips nervously, you side glanced at Connor, who was actually staring at you, before quickly moving your gaze back to the Lieutenant. “I owe him my life.”

 

“Huh.” The Lieutenant seemed impressed with Connor’s heroics, “Well I’ll be. Connor, is this true?”

 

Always direct and to the point, Connor answered immediately, “Yes, Lieutenant. As you were speaking to several officers about our lead, I noticed as she seemed distracted while walking down the street. I calculated the chances of an accident occurring should she have continued to walk without paying attention to her surroundings and followed her thusly.” At Connor’s explanation, you stopped yourself from showing confusion when he omitted the fact that he’d noticed your staring from inside the coffee shop. “She paused in the middle of the road as if she were trying to make sense of her surroundings, and a truck at that time was speeding down the road, going much faster than the city limit. I also noticed that the driver was on his cell phone. Had she been struck by the truck, she would have had a very minimal chance of survival, so I reacted accordingly and pushed her out of the way.”

 

It was a full report, that Hank Anderson seemed to fully pay attention to. “You’re not hurt?” It was as direct a question as something Connor would ask, although his inflection was certainly much more gruff. The Lieutenant seemed worried as his eyes looked you over a few times.

 

“I’m not.” you grinned in what you hoped was an assuring manner. “I’m wet and cold, but I’m not hurt. Connor protected me from the impact very well.”

 

Hank, seemingly pleased that you were unharmed, pursed his lips and nodded before digging through his coat pocket and handing you a business card. “We’ll leave you be, but in case you want to start a case against that truck driver, here’s my contact information. Connor, did you get the license plate of the vehicle?”

 

“Yes, Lieutenant. I’ve also uploaded my memory of the event should it be needed as evidence.” Connor answered dutifully, before resuming his silence in favor of observing the situation.

 

“Well,” Hank sighed and gestured towards Connor, “You heard him. Let us know if you want to open that case, alright?” And with that, Lieutenant Anderson turned around and walked away, ushering Connor to follow with a wave of his hand, “C’mon, Connor, you’re the one who wanted to tackle this investigation, we ain’t got all day.”

 

Letting out an amused chuckle, you patted Connor on the arm, “You should get going, Connor. Your job sounds important. Thanks for saving my life.” Just as you were about to walk away, a warm hand caught your own, halting you in your steps.

 

“What’s your name?” Connor asked, brows furrowed and brown eyes sparkling with an ache to know.

 

Giving his hand a comforting squeeze as you looked back at him, you merely replied, “I think that, deep down, you already know, Connor.” It took only a slight instance for his hand to slacken, and like that, you disappeared into the crowd, leaving your beloved longing after you.


End file.
